A festival to restore pride and build for the future
The format of the Cloonacool Festival is quite simple. From a two-day event in the beginning, it now runs over four days and nights, bringing to life the farming tradition of the region.
When a rural community in South Sligo took a long hard look at its future a few years ago, they saw the urgent need to maintain their community spirit and to create new possibilities for their future survival.
The European Union and the former European Economic Community, for all their good work, were often more focused in their economic role and less so on their sense of community. Maybe it was felt that if economies were sound, communities would survive. The reality for rural communities however was that their importance became less and less and eventually such delicate fabrics began to disintegrate.
Cloonacool, a small rural community nestling in the foothill of the Ox Mountains, was just such a village. As farming techniques changed in recent decades and as the pull for better incomes took a younger generation abroad or to the cities, life somehow became less concentrated, placing certain activities and traditions on the endangered list. These downward progressions start slowly. The local GAA club finds it difficult to maintain numbers, mass times change to suit varying lifestyles, masses are fewer, the local shop is used by fewer and fewer families in preference to driving to the supermarket in the nearby town. Eventually, the shop closes, the local bar closes and the priest’s house lays in darkness. One by one, the vital organs in a rural parish die off and no entity can survive for long without its vital organs.
Cloonacool then had a choice to make: the choice was to watch itself die or to engage in a process of reinvigoration. It chose the latter. In 2018 it was decided by the local people themselves to actively create their own future. They would build on the platform of a spirit that existed in the community, a spirit that had, in fact, been the envy of neighbouring parishes for many years.
A number of possible projects were highlighted in an effort to mark the way forward. Chief among these was the creation of an annual Sheep Festival. This arose out of the fact that Cloonacool had always been well-known for its sheep farming tradition. The tradition had maintained families for decades; mountain sheep being the ideal stock to take advantage of the local hills and commonage.
The mission of the Sheep Festival was to create awareness and restore pride, but the sum of these parts provided a much greater outcome. Ado McIntyre is the current Festival chairperson and he speaks of how the festival has grown since its first outing in 2019.
“The one thing we didn’t lose in Cloonacool was our community spirit; our ability to work together as a community. Our first festival in 2019 was designed to help restore our heritage and our traditions. Sheep and sheep farming seemed to be the obvious theme. We developed a very enthusiastic core group to help organise the festival. It was just ourselves really; farming lads and people with an interest is maintaining our community values.”
The format of the Cloonacool Festival is quite simple. From a two-day event in the beginning, it now runs over four days and nights, bringing to life the farming tradition of the region. Ado continues to enthuse about the project.
“We start planning early each year for our festival in late September. For the festival itself we put a series of events in place and within that we focus on a few main points. Firstly, the festival is for our local community, secondly, we put ourselves out there for other communities to come and enjoy and thirdly, we try to put in place a series of events that appeals to a wider public. We are very proud of our place and of our tradition and basically try to display that. Not only are outsiders impressed by our efforts but it really strengthens our own sense of community, and that is our payback.”
The festival is indeed a great example of the old sustaining the new. The organising committee combine all the right ingredients to serve up a very tasty experience. This year the Cloonacool Sheep Festival opens this Thursday, September 21 at 9pm with an old-fashioned cabaret night in the company of Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan. Friday sees the local school community involved with an innovative art project followed by a disco for the children. Later on Friday, an 80s disco will swing into action for those who want to relive the heady days and nights of that time. Saturday features a Walking Treasure Hunt at 10am and later that night is the Festival Dance with Stuart Moyles at 10pm. The Festival Dance is a real throwback to the days of the village carnival and proves a huge attraction for the social dancing trend of today.
Sunday, September 24 is the final day of the festival and provides a real blast of colour in the village of Cloonacool with a sheep show and dog show providing the main attractions. Both shows attract participants and visitors from a wide area, from South Donegal to West Mayo. The day also provides a great family day out with many exhibits and displays. Entry to the festival is free but the site does contain numerous ways in which patrons can support the project. The main fundraiser at the festival is the sale of draw tickets where the top prize is a whopping €1,000 cash or five magnificent breeding ewes.
Returning to Ado McIntyre for a final comment on this year’s festival, it is easy to see, from his enthusiasm, why the project is proving to be such a success for his community.
“I suppose we love the place, really, and we are anxious to see it survive. We appreciate what we have here and while not always putting words on it, we would like to maintain it for the next generation.
“Farming and sheep farming is not just a way of making a few pound, it’s a way of life. It can be a hard life at times but somehow, in terms of family and community, it can be very rewarding. It creates pride and neighbourliness and a sense of achievement and that all gets fed into our festival. It’s hard to define it but we have something special here in Cloonacool. It’s something that helps us to feel good about ourselves and our place and outsiders seem to notice that, and they admire us for it.”
Cloonacool Sheep Festival takes place in the village of Cloonacool in South Sligo between September 21 and 24. Further details appear regularly on their Facebook Page. Everybody is welcome to attend any or all of the festival events. Text 087-2512030 or email cloonacoolsheepfestival@gmail.com for more information.
